By the time they got to the exit stairs on the ground floor, he was finally getting the first look at her mysterious visage. Black hair that felt soft like a silky veil, cascaded down her slim figure, with dark brown eyes resembled his freshly brewed cup of joe. But it wasn't a pleasant cup of coffee, it was a tongue scalding one, because he drank it in haste. Her eyes brimming with absolute abhorrence at his entire existence and her words stung like a bee.

Ok, it didn't sting, but it didn't feel great either.

Ashley Diaz. That was the name he had to find out by reading postbox labels at the entrance of the building, because she refused to let him know her name. Jack understood her hatred towards himself and the lifestyle he was leading, like any normal human being should. He couldn't recall the number of girls he had spent the night with anymore. And at his age, it started to become something that felt more like a self-depreciation joke than a brag about his pickup skills.

God is dead and he will stay dead. And nothing is going to matter.

He completely agreed with Nietzche's idea of a pointless world, panned out above, didn't connect anywhere below. He wasn't much of nihillist himself but he agreed to that view. Which was rather ironic because it was what bought him to this lifestyle, and perhaps what will bring him out of it sooner or later.

One humongous self-sabotage joke.

Jack thought only women would have trouble going through rejections. Apparently, he too, had that problem going on, with Ms. Diaz downstairs.

.

His eyes strained on the naked body in front of him. What was her name? Anna

Anna, her head was bobbing up and down on his crotch in a rhythm that must came from heaven. If someone were to ask Jack about his favourite shape in the entire cosmo, the answer would have been human. Not a circle, triangle or rectangle, a human's body shape. It's probably the most captivating shape on earth. Jack was so into it because the shape of each and every one is different and every time he get to observe a new one, he instantly feel elevated just by thinking about all the new discover he may find.

Granted, it sounded as creepy as if he was a serial killer. It was nothing but a mere admiration towards the instruments God gave to human, especially women. It would've been a blasphemy not to admire it, according to Jack.

His next thought lost in the mouth of Anna, but sometime later that night his head was full of Ashley's dark brown eyes, reflecting something so similar to his own image a few years ago, when life wasn't as complicated and he wasn't this unfathomable.

The next morning Jack escaped just before Anna turned her body around to the empty side of his bed. Very close indeed, but he liked the idea of himself barely getting out of a sticky situation. It gave off a mini hit of adrenaline, just enough to get him out of the sleepy stage.

Jack managed his way down to the building's ground floor, thinking about getting bagels for breakfast because Sh'boys' Bagel always sound like a good choice. But he found himself turning into the mailboxes section instead of going out for reasons he couldn't make out of.

Ashley Diaz, with the 'z' slightly smeared to the side. Her mail box was stuffed with A4 size letter that looked like documents she was supposed to sign. One of the letter stuck out had an orange logo on it caught his eyes. Wattpad, it said.

He must've heard this name somewhere, because it sounded awfully familiar and the back of his head was ticking with curiosity. The results came up on his phone directed him to an app download window. Jack instantly flushed by a deja vu of doing this search up act before.

It took a while for a flashback of his fresh years at RIDGE. looking at possible options for investment in new tech section. Wattpad wasn't that big back then and his direct boss shushed the idea away almost immediately. Perhaps that was one of their misses because the platform have grown into an investment anyone in his firm would think of as worth considering. There were barely any place to squeeze into now that they're late in the game. Nevertheless, RIDGE were still big in other, non-social platform related tech investment.

Putting his phone back into his pocket, Jack wondered what was Ashley's business with Wattpad. Did she work with them? If so, he wonder if there are chances of getting inside information from her. If she couldn't provide it, were there anyone else? Jack wasn't sure anything could come out of this but so do opportunities in life. Sometimes you gotta go for just about any lead you've got.

And so the idea of bringing Ashley's mails to her popped up in his head, along with mental bullet points about conversation grease he can use to bridge into asking her about Wattpad. His hand went for her mails first, then his. He then turned to look at his watch. It was 9.15 and Jack wasn't very keen about getting up another 5 stairs only to get caught running away by Anna if he couldn't make it inside Ashley's flat. But he was convinced that Wattpad's possible infiltration was worth it and tried to flew up the stairs.

.

Jack didn't expect 509 would have somebody in her room, not today. Echoes of the other person's voice through Ashley's door turned his Wattpad investigation plan to blue. It was a man's voice.

Jack didn't really bother to identify what category his interest in Ashley was, rather than a potentially exploitable neighbour. But he couldn't stop feeling territorial over a place he can used as a hideaway, aka Ashley's room. Jack hand went for the knock immediately after.

Ashley head popped out behind the door looking annoyed.

"Here's your mails, 509. Also I just locked myself out by accident, can I-" Jack feel slightly pressured to put a smile on his face.

But before he can utter the rest of the sentence, Ashley cut him off "If you want in, play along."

Jack immediately spotted a brownish-blonde guy sitting on the light blue sofa, hands holding on to a cup, looking back at him curiously. There was a faint smell of coffee lingering in the air and the guy looked rather sad, as if he just lost a mansion in a mega tornado.

"It seems like 609 got some problem with his keys, I have to let him use my phone." Ashley voice interrupted Jack's imagination about poor guy over there, and he instantly put up his sociable facade and extended his hand out.

"Hello, I'm Jack."

Daniel got a clammy hand and Jack was sure Ashley hurt the guy badly. It was a sort of telepathic premonition feeling that he knew Ashley wasn't the type to be fuck around with in romantic relationships.

The thought of how Daniel looked so sad entertained Jack. They said pleasure and pain go hands in hands, but for Jack, it took the whole meaning in enjoying other people's suffering. He always knew he was vile, but at this very moment, he felt morality may already desiccated completely from his mind. Most of it was probably the side effects of working in one of the most competitive workplace in Unicornland, the other must have come from the dark place at the back of his head.

Much to Jack's fascination, Daniel bailed out of the situation faster than he anticipated and disappeared behind the door before he could proceed to ask the poor guy anything. And Ashley face visibly released at the exclusion of Daniel's presence. Before he could proceed to peer more into it, the sound of foot steps from upstairs caught his ears. Those were heels, very familiar even. Jack's eyes darted to the opening door of room 509 and saw a flash movement of something alarmingly red.

It was Anna's flaring red dress that resemble a swirl of fire in his mind from last night, and Jack's brain clicked. He immediately fell to the floor with a loud thud, as those foot steps got closer. It was a dumb plan, but at the swift of the moment, that was all he could improvise. His frame was too big to hide behind this miniature of a sofa in Ashley's living room. And for a second, Jack really hoped Anna would saw a bit of his hair poking out and thought he was just a dog or something, among a whirl of nervous thoughts in his head about getting caught.

The only thing followed that was a heavy slamming of the door at 509's. Jack poked his head out to meet a pair of angry, brown eyes.

"You lied about being locked out of your room, didn't you?"

"Well, I need a quick escape route before she wakes up. This place is ideal." Jack spit-balled while crawling up from the floor to lie on the sofa.

"Every time I thought I've set the bar for indecency incredibly low, you just have to prove I'm wrong." Ashley squinted her eyes, and Jack was amused that the amount of hate she can portrait just by a look.

"Come on, I even helped you out. Who was that though?" he couldn't stop himself. The presence of other male specimen in a 'safe place', HIS safe place, made him less than happy.

"My ex-boyfriend." words came out of her mouth like feathers stroking on Jack's brain, and he found a strange relief feeling slowly spreading through his body.

No strings attached meant Ashley was now fully, 100%, exploitable.